Strategy Session

No matter whether you want to become a top performer in your niche
or save your company even amidst a challenging economic climate
you need to create a strong action plan.

To feel empowered to solve any problem you come across,
no matter how complex you need to have a strategy and tactical plans.

Success isn’t something that just happens by chance for the lucky few. This is an everyday work step-by-step, systematically, and aligns with the strategy. The strategy should be your first step no matter how much money your business already has. It would be your preparation for growth.

However, to create a general strategy or operational plan, you need to be able to make global strategic decisions.

Strategic planning requires a certain amount of discipline and consistency. You have to evaluate your business, market, competitors, partners, employees, and yourself. This means you'll be dealing with a lot of data.

Let me introduce you to a tool that translates data into insights and insights into wisdom. This is perfect training for your mind and the minds of your team to think differently and in doing so, benefit your business and your profit.

So if you want your business to grow you need to use strategy sessions. If you want to have a sustainable competitive advantage to make your business really strong and make a lot of money you would need to use it regularly.

Consulting hundreds of companies since 2016 I’ve found
those who are using strategic planning usually have better results.

Those who engage independent experts for the strategy creation process
always have the highest growth, revenue, and profits.

Even if you already don't have enough money for a professional facilitator don't be upset. In this case, you would need to dive a little into the following questions:

What is a strategy session?
How should you plan it?
Who should be involved in the process?
What should be the meeting agenda?
How often should you run such meetings?

A strategy session is often thought of as time set aside for planning, which includes a long list of assigned activities with timeframes and resources. Some believe this is where in one day a company’s vision is created or best practices are followed. But for all those questions you need much more time than even a few days. And you need to work with them all the time.

What is a strategy session?

A strategy session is a specific meeting that pulls business owners and management away from daily operations to focus exclusively on strategic questions.

These sessions can help:

to develop a new strategy,
evaluate your current status,
brainstorm ideas on how you will achieve your goals,
set benchmarks for measuring progress and success.

So we need to break apart strategic thinking, create a global strategy, and execute planning, and strategy sessions. Each activity requires very different teams and processes.

Creating a Global Strategy
The long-term process requires a working group (leaders and key employees) to concentrate on discussing strategic issues rather than operational questions.
As for me, the ideal strategy fits on one or two sheets of paper.
Strategic Thinking
Unfortunately, it’s not enough to write a strategy once a quarter or once a year.
It requires regular top management weekly meetings.
Execution Planning
It is process of a strategy detalisation, creating specific instructions for moving towards the global goal.
This requires the engagement of a much larger team. Some of the goals of execution planning include setting specific annual and quarterly priorities, outcomes, and KPIs.
Strategy Session
It is a sacred meeting where you make decisions on how you will win while taking into account each step of the strategy framework.

Major Questions of a Strategy Session?

Depending on the situation during the strategy session we are making decisions about global strategy or for a few tasks.

Anyway, we need to figure out how to integrate the following questions:

aspiration,
where to compete,
how to be the best,
capabilities,
systems and metrics.

1. Aspiration

This is the first step and it frames all other decisions. Ultimately, you’ll need to compare the aspiration and results with some specific benchmarks.

Questions:

What is your purpose, your motivation?
Why do you need to solve this problem?

Of course, aspirations could be revised and improved over time. After you get some results and/or find some new possibilities. But it is a basic element that cannot be changed from day to day.

The aspiration will broadly define the scope of your activities, and the next two steps define the specific activities.

2. Where to compete

You could not be the best in everything and everywhere at the same time. So it's important to choose the battlefield and a weapon to become a winner.

Where you compete and how you can become the best are tightly connected and are the heart of your strategy session. So after you find out your aspiration you need to narrow your focus.

It's necessary to choose the sandbox where you can achieve your aspiration, narrowing the competitive field and your ideal targets. You are not a 100-dollar banknote so you can’t be the best for all people.

That's why you should compete where your core strengths will enable you to be the best.

3. How to be the best

As we chose a niche it's time to find out how to be the best in it. This part of the strategy session should help you define your recipe for success.

First of all, you need to decide what will enable you to create unique value for your customers. But it is much better to have more than only one-time sales. So you need to find a way to sustainably deliver some value to your perfect buyers. This competitive advantage should become a specific way your company will create superior value for your consumer, customer, or client and, in turn, create superior returns for your company.

Here you should be the most creative because there are many methods and ways to be the best. As the standards and rules of each niche differ significantly, there is no single, simple way to be the best. During your strategy session, you will need to think both broadly and deeply, in the varying contexts available to your company. But it is not always necessary to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes you could just borrow positive experiences from other industries. This way, you can go beyond your niche.

The most important thing for you is being the best in your customer service. Your profit will depend on how you uniquely delight customers.

4. What are your capabilities?

At this stage, it is very important to mention all the capabilities you have, both directly and indirectly. By creating a list of capabilities, you are creating a map of all the activities and competencies that will allow you to be the best on your chosen battlefield.

For example, to manufacture products, you need special equipment that you can:

Purchase
Rent
Find a partner who already has such equipment.

At the same time, the amount of start-up capital you need and also the list of your options in general change significantly. After all, by choosing option 3, you get not only the equipment itself but also other opportunities for the new partner.

Many of your capabilities may be quite strong, but something may be missing. What you lack, others have. That is why it is worth considering your capabilities both inside and outside your team. In addition to partnerships, it is also important to consider outsourcing. After all, it is not necessary to inflate your staff, train specialists, control them, etc. It is much more rational to use ready-made qualified specialists who work on a project basis.

When compiling a list of your capabilities, you should also take into account your business contacts and their real capabilities. It is quite possible that one of your acquaintances has already solved a problem similar to yours and has contacts of the right specialists, knows where to buy raw materials better, or will be ready to help you "open other doors".

5. What systems and metrics empower your capabilities?

Systems and processes are usually dismissed, but without them, you cannot ensure the effectiveness of your strategy.

In the last stage of your strategy session, you need to focus on establishing sustainable processes and selecting systems that drive, support, and measure performance. The set of systems and processes is different for each company. But in every case, they should help you to get the desired result on the chosen "battlefield" and strengthen your competitive advantage.

Examples of systems and processes:

CRM to systematize work,
website/application,
standardization of tasks and clear
instructions,
own knowledge base, etc.

Even if you go through the previous four steps but do not start using systems and processes, you will fail.

Why is it so important to use systems and processes?

You depend on specific people.
Your systems follow a clear procedure and go through all the steps of the process.
Once you set them up properly, you benefit from them for a long time.
They help your employees to follow the right procedures.

After you have reviewed the main 5 elements of a strategy session, can try to conduct your own.

Agenda for the strategy session

First of all, you need a document where you set the following items:

The purpose, objectives, participants, location, and time of the session.
For example:
Purpose: To develop, improve, sharpen, remain competitive, and ultimately achieve our business aspirations.
Objectives: Identify new business opportunities and areas to increase our impact: market knowledge, digital, planning, creativity, etc.
Participants:
______________________ (Director),
______________________ (Head of Marketing),
______________________ (Head of Sales),
______________________ (Head of Production),...

Location: conference hall
Date and time: 15.03.2024, 1 PM

List each topic and subtopic with the corresponding speaker and the time allocated for the presentation. This detail will help provide structure to the conversation and help you stay focused. After all, global discussions often stray from the desired goal.
For example:
Current market situation and main challenges - _____(director) - 15 min.
Audit of competitors and their activities - ______ (head of marketing) - 20 min.
Customer sentiment, problems, and achievements in working with them - ______ (Head of Sales) - 20 minutes.
You will need to conclude the meeting with a list of specific actions and responsible persons. It is also important to indicate clear deadlines for completing the tasks.
For example:
Hold meetings with 5 key partners - _____ (director) - by 04/15/2024
Test... Determine the optimal... - ______ (Head of Marketing) - by 15.04.2024
Optimize negotiation scripts with regard to... - ______(Head of Sales) - until 15.04.2024

Even preparing the agenda for a strategic session can give you a lot of interesting ideas. So, if you haven't done it yet, don't hesitate!

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